IELTS Mock Test 2021
January
Reading Practice Test 1
HOW TO USE
You have 2 ways to access the test
1.
Open this URL
http://link.intergreat.com/gw6cw
on your computer
2. Use your mobile device to scan the QR code attached
Reading Passage 1
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13
Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage
One.
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THE DAMS THAT CHANGED AUSTRALIA
SECTION ONE
Inland Australia has had a problem with drought from the time of white settlement in 1788
until today, and this is why the Snowy Mountains Scheme was conceived and founded. Before
the Snowy Scheme a large proportion of the snow elds on Australia's highest mountains (the
Snowy Mountains) melted into the Snowy River every year. Hence, Snowy River water owed,
ultimately, into the sea, not toward the dry interior of the country, where people needed it so
desperately. This was rst recognised by the Polish geologist and explorer Strezlecki in 1840,
who commented that there could be no development of the inland without adequate water
supply. The rivers would have to be diverted if irrigation were to succeed.
Before Federation in 1901, Australia consisted of a group of colonies, all anxious to protect their
own interests. After Federation the states retained rights to the water, and thus to what might
happen to the rivers. Arguments between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia led
to a deadlocked Premiers' Conference in 1947. Despite this serious dispute, the Federal
Parliament passed the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Power Act just two years later, on July
7. The project was of cially commenced on October 17 that year, barely three months after the
act had been passed.
The scheme set out to harness water for electricity and to divert it back to the dry inland areas
for irrigation. To do this, thousands of kilometres of tunnels had
to be drilled through the
mountains, and sixteen major dams and seven hydro-electric power stations built over a period
of nineteen years. The rst of these was Guthega Power Station, which was commissioned in
1954. and the last one to be finished was Tumut III.
SECTION TWO
The Snowy Mountains Scheme was to alter the face of Australia forever. One important change
was the recruitment of people from outside Australia to work on the scheme. In 1949, while the
world was still recovering from the effects of World War II (1939 to 1945), the Australian
government needed immense numbers of people to work on the Snowy. It sought labour from
overseas, and 60,000 of the 100,000 people who worked on the scheme came from outside
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the country.
They came from thirty different countries: from Italy, Yugoslavia,
and Germany, from
sophisticated cities like Budapest, Paris and Vienna, and from tiny hamlets. These European
workers left countries which had fought against
each other during the war, and which had
vastly different cultures, and they found themselves in a country which was still de ning itself.
They were adventurous young men, some highly skilled, some not, and they came to a place
which offered both enormous challenges and primitive conditions. Many were housed in tents
in the early days of the scheme, although some fortunate men were placed in barracks. The
food was basic, female company extremely scarce and entertainment lacking.
SECTION THREE
Many new arrivals spoke only limited English, and were offered English classes after work. The
men needed primarily to understand safety instructions, and safety lectures were conducted in
English and other languages. In fact, a great deal of communication underground was by sign
language, especially when the conditions were noisy. The signs were peculiar to the business
at hand: for instance, a thumb placed near the mouth meant water, but did not indicate
whether the water was needed on the drill the man was using, or for a drink.
The constant reference to the men who worked on the Snowy is appropriate because few
women
worked on the scheme, and those who were employed usually held of ce jobs.
Women, however, were active in the community, and the members of the Country Women’s
Association gave English lessons. Other English instruction was provided by the Australian
Broadcasting Commission, which ran daily broadcasts to help the newcomers with the
language.
SECTION FOUR
These circumstances could have
caused great social trouble, but there were relatively few
serious problems. The men worked long and hard, and many saved their money with a view to
settling in Australia or returning home. At a reunion in 1999 many were happy to remember
the hardships of those days, but it was all seen through a glow of achieve-ment. This
satisfaction was felt not only by the men who worked directly on the project, but by the
women, many of whom had been wives and mothers during the scheme, and indicated that
they had felt very much part of it.
The children of these couples
went to school in Happy Jack, a town notable for having the
highest school in Australia, and the highest birth rate. In one memorable year there were thirty
babies born to the eighty families in Happy Jack. Older children went to school in Cooma, the
nearest major town.
SECTION FIVE
The scheme is very unlikely to be repeated. The expense of putting the power stations
underground would now be prohibitive, and our current information
about ecology would
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